Who needs a strong political platform when you have a shining personality to support the agenda you feel is best for your constituency?

According to early counts from cantonal polling centers, the powerhouse National Liberation Party (Spanish initials: PLN) dominated municipal elections in Costa Rica; however, former Mayor of San Jose Johnny Araya proved that he did not have to run on the PLN ticket to return to the most powerful municipal office in our country.

After infamously dropping out of the presidential race after an early concession to President Luis Guillermo Solis, Mayor Elect Araya was ostracized by PLN leaders who believed his self-dismissal from the runoff election amounted to a weak political spirit. Mayor Elect Araya explained that he saw no further need to spend campaign funds when the race was clearly lost and there was a clear need to focus on winning legislative seats to form a strong opposition, which the PLN accomplished. The party leaders, however, saw things differently and suspended him for a term of four years.

As a candidate, the new Mayor Elect of San Jose wrote his own political ticket. Hundreds of municipal employees, some of them PLN council members with virtual permanency clamored for his return to the Mayoral seat. Mayor Elect Araya faced strong opposition from PLN leaders, who were livid at his defiant stance, which was given a green light by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (Spanish initials: PLN).

In his first victory speech last night, Mayor Elect Araya did not gloat on his landslide victory as a one-man party that crushed the PLN. It was clear that his years of forging an extremely charismatic presence helped him return to a seat he held since the late 20th century. In his speech, Mayor Elect Araya mentioned that he has learned from his mistakes and that he is ready to simply resume the work he suspended when he ran for President of Costa Rica.

Political analysts who believed that voters in the Central Canton of San Jose would simply stick to the PLN party line at the polls were probably astounded by the results. Mayor Elect Johnny “Giuliani” Araya spent very little on his comeback campaign, and his Social Democratic formula was basically along the lines of telling voters “Remember me? I have lots of experience. Think of me as a job candidate you would like to rehire.”

And just like that, he got reelected. So resounding was his victory that he wanted to enter a polling center in Hatillo with a cimarrona (festive marching band) in tow. TSE officials asked him to tone it down and keep the band 50 meters away from all polls, the Mayor Elect vexedly complied.

Notwithstanding, at polling centers in Alajuela, leading PLN candidate and current Mayor Roberto Thompson toured with cimarrona in tow. Mayor Thompson is being groomed by the PLN for a future presidential candidacy in Costa Rica, and he has survived internal political hits; who’s to say that perhaps he is more deserving of the cimarrona than Mayor Elect Araya? In the end, one candidate proved to his constituency that he did not need the PLN marching band to win.